FLUXLIST: Box for TRADE
Hello Fluxlist Friends: I just made an Art Box. It is about 3 inches by 4 by 4, with a clear top, and four compartments inside. Each compartment has something in it. What? You will have to see to find out. I am offering this box to 1 lucky (I assume) person in trade for something equally artistic and mysterious. The first person to email me with an offer will win the box! On your mark, get set... -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen
FLUXLIST: text
While going through my files (piles, really), I came across the below text, which was performed by myself and three others 18 months ago. Now, I have no idea where the text came from: it is obviously some text I have altered (by substituting words), but I do not know what, or in what manner I did this. In a moment I am going to do a web search on the words I would never myself use (throne, "hue and cry," aristocratic). Regardless, it is an ineresting read. (whisper) The engagement obscures their movement. Subjects taken apart, theoretical. Theory is equivalence. Feelings, essentially artistic ideas, find art in life adhering to, but not entirely, logic. Ideology causes problems for serious culture. Without assistance, totality is no more than brief achievements in the world of high-current (not popular serious culture. Popular to most is individual genius. (pause) (spoken) Art, not serious culture, is a throne of contributions, occasionally from serious scientific research, occasionally the hue and cry of the superior and unknown. The aristocratic and theoretical leave a potent legacy, but total transformation remains available for few. The theoretical history of art leaves the artist a threat to serious culture, where original ideas fight the logical ones, the masses against art circles. I thought that art would be not art, but revolutionary creativity totally separated from existing culture. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen
FLUXLIST: Re: Macunias video
Hey, has anyone here who has the Sonic Youth 'Goodbye 20th Century' cd been able to get the Mancunias video to work in their computer? It keeps saying 'File Format Not Valid' on mine, and I even just recently downloaded the new version of Windows Media Player, which is supposed to be able to play nearly anything. Quicktime doesn't know what to do with it either. Make sure you have the correct CD loaded in. The CD jacket says it is on the second CD (where the audio track is). My video was on the first CD. This greatly enhances video performance. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: TIMEPIECE
Well, I guess I am finished with the timepiece project. I'm not so good with keeping to a fixed schedule. I missed a couple of days, and I discontinued the project while I was in Chicago the past couple of days. Now I need to have two rolls of film developed. What happens then? Do I send them somewhere? Should I hide them somewhere and let everyone find them? Or mail one photo to everybody on the list? I saw a screening of Tarkowsky's "The Sacrafice." In it, a line that is of particular interest to us (and I paraphrase here): "If only a person would perform the same task at the same time every day, the world would be changed." While in Chicago, I visited the Contempoary Museum of Art where I went through an exhibit of works by Tom Friedman. Wow. I won't go into great detail (maybe later, if anyone is interested), but I was amazed by some (many?) of his works, some of which seemed to be pure Fluxus anti-art. One piece was called "Curse" and it was an eleven-inch sphere of air on top a pedestal that was cursed by a witch. Another piece, displayed on the floor in a glass case, was a piece of paper about 3 foot square in which (as stated on the title plaque) every word of the English language was written. There was also a huge exhibit of works by Sol LeWitt, a name I've often read of, but I have never really seen much of his work. Now I have seen a lot of his work. Huge works involving geometric shapes and lines that would fill up an entire wall. His works played with an architectual precision of pure form and shape. I am glad my first exposure to his work was of so much stuff that would have been missing something if I had flipped through a book on him (there were also about 2 dozen books of his work on display under glass). Other things in Chicago: Harold's Chicken! Fred Anderson! Kevin Drumm! Edith Frost! A protest march for afforible housing with 5 effigies! Seeing the hatching egg sculpture in Hyde Park again (I used to walk by it everyday on my way to classes: It is called "Bird of Peace" or something, but it will always be the hatching egg sculpture to me)! Being awarded "Dog of the Day" by a homie on the El for lending him my pen (I wore this honor like a badge)! Searching for a copy of Charlie Christian's "Live at Carnigie Hall" and not finding it at 4 record stores! Looking for a copy of Nancy Cunard's biography at 4 bookstores and not finding it! Seeing how much my old neighborhood has changed in 7 years! Listening to my cousin tell stories of my grandfather (who died when I was 4 or 5) who owned a fish store in Brooklyn NY! Having a friend borrow a rare Romanian LP by Iancu Dumitrescu that I was able to tape a copy! Oh well. I'm back in Texas now. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Anti-Sinus Record
I am posting this to both the lowercase list and the Fluxlist, as I think it will interest people on both lists. I cam across the following bit in the book "Aldous Huxley: A Biography" by Sybille Bedford. On page 494, she quotes from a letter Huxley (one of my favorite writers) wrote in 1952: "And talking of unorthodoxies, I am asking a curious and interesting Danish acquaintance of mine, Dr. Christian Volf, who is an expert on hearing, to send me care of you [his bother Julian], one of the special recordings he has made for relief of sinus trouble. One listens through earphones to a record of synthetic sounds in the lowest musical octave and the effect is to give an intense internal massage, vibrating the bones of the skull... I have heard of many people who keep sinusitis at bay simply by listening to the record every morning before breakfast." Searches on "Christian Volf" on Altavista and Google have turned up nothing. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: Peter Brotzmann
Go to http://www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/mbrotzm.html for brief bio, discography and audio video clips of Brotzmann. The bio doesn't mention direct connection, only that European improvising musicians in the '60s were "influenced" by Stockhausen, Cage, etc. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Josh's projects
Speaking of projects, I have two projects that I may have mentioned before, but I will mention again. 1) THE 39 WORDS -- Email me your postal address and I will send you a list of 39 words from a Laurence Durrell novel. You are to create a new prose text using these words in order, up to 500 words or so. The 4 textual responses I have gotten from this so far are amazing. 2) THE PIERRE BOULEZ PROJECT -- Send me a Pierre Boulez (who once wrote "all art of the past must be destroyed") recording or book or score, and I will destroy it in a brekekekexkoaxkoax performance. See my new web page (http://home.flash.net/~jronsen/boulez.html) for more details. So far I have 6CDs, 4LPs and promise of 1 book. I am aiming for at least 100 items. Please spread the word on these two projects. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: Devon's mystery project
"Devon Paulson" writes: I have this project I have been working on over the last few weeks. I am going to exhibit it, along with some other concept projects, in October. But you kids can be the first to do this with me. Count me in. But the copyright of any work I participate in must be registered in my name, and I must be attributed as sole, soverign author of any work. I will send you (and anyone else involved) a form to sign stating your compliance with these (and a few other) legalities. Oops, I thought I was LaMonte Young there for a moment. Excuse me. I'm back to normal now. Sign me up. -Josh Ronsen PO Box 7896 Austin TX 78705 USA --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: bike race
daniel constien writes: The question I have is how can I get the audience involved in ways that are more involved than just viewing? Any help that can be given would be appreciated and noted accordingly. Well, here is what I think. You should have the audience be the ones who lift up the bikes (with riders still peddling) and move them. At a time appointed by the judges, the audience would go to their favorite cyclist and move them a few feet. There could be a rule that each audience member couldn't move the same bike twice in a row. This might add a touch of the ol' Flusus absurdity to events... What's going to be the prize for winning? Considering that a "normal" prize is something material and sationary (like a trophy), 1st prize for your race could be something immaterial and mobile, like the wind. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: strange things in the mail?
A-ha! But what has been the strangest thing you've gotten by e-mail?! -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: Josh and Devon
David Baptiste Chirot writes apologies--meant to write: Dear Josh--and mutatated into Devon It is ok. There are many people who confuse me with Devon. I am used to it by now. In fact I am continuously mistaken for other people, although I think my looks are somewhat original (not necessarily beautific; certainly not! http://www.nd.org/jronsen/jmoog.jpg). Most times this takes me by surprise and I admit I am not the person they think they are talking to. I dream of someday pretending to be this other person, to see how far I can get into this other world of relationships (not in any malicious sense). -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #426
Eric Andersen writes: As Ben Patterson often puts is: If Ken Friedman didn't exist we would have to invent him. To me, that sounds like a sincere compliment, i.e. if Ken were not worth having around, why would one invent him? Sol Nte writes: Okay, Ken did annoy a few people with his netiquette notes and rants against internet petitions but he more than made up for that with his posts on Fluxus History etc. At least one person (me) appreciated Ken's netiquette sugestions. I can recall none of them that were illogical, uninformed or not sensible. I'm sorry Ken had to waste his time to do these things, but I was always glad when someone spoke up about them. Anyway, when I was in Chicago, a friend showed me a copy of Emmett Williams' "Sweethearts" book, published by Something Else Press, that he found for a dollar! It was a beautiful story/poem. Every page (read back to front like a Hebrew book) had words comprised entirely from the letters from the string "sweethearts" used in order, each line of each page used parts from the string. For example, one page might be (view with fixed-spaced font): she h a s a sweet h a t th a ts we t And the story builds on the tale of these two lovers and their ears, their tears, the sea, what they hear, etc. Very nice book. I am glad I saw it. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen ps: For the 39 words projects, I just finished my story last night. The beginnings of my original piece didn't stand up to the submissions I have from Seth Tisue, Daniel Russell, Joseph Zitt and Linda Woolman. My second attempt doesn't stand up either, but now it is in a strained crouching position... I thank every one for their interest in this project. --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #437
Alan writes: my problem is that i'm scared, i think. 7 years of cognative therapy and i learned that at the point of "potential" success i break down. not how to prevent this though! i have several hundred unfinished pieces, unfinished so i dont know if there any good or not, i cant succeed but i cant fail. jist live in a frustrated state of limbo. I feel similarly. A sort of paraysis grips me whenever I think about "finishing" or presenting a piece of my art. Is it good enough? By this I mean, is it really worth anyone's time to look at/listen to? There are those who think that any creative enterprise has some worth. I do not agree with this. I think a lot of art (and I am mostly talking about music/sound art, as that is what I am most familiar with) is made just because people have become little "art factories" churning stuff out just because they have the means of production set up, and not due to any higher artistic impulse. I constantly scrutinize all of my work seeking for a trace of worth in it, to see if it could have any value to someone else besides me. It is rare that something passes my censors. Something I did yesterday, which I like greatly, a little rectangle of blurry colors: http://www.nd.org/jronsen/duchamp14.jpg Is that worthwhile? I think so, but I could be deluding myself. Art: what seperates art as a comodity in the capital-artistic machine from Art as a transcedental experience? Am I deluding myself into thinking that I could ever produce anything that wasn't the former? That is what scares me. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen ps: Alan, if you have several hundred unfinished pieces sitting around, habe you ever considered sending them to other people (us, for example!) to finish them, as a collaboration? That way, you would be freed from making that awful, terrifying leap to the Finished. It would be out of your hands, and you could blame the other person if the piece didn't turn out... Just a thought... --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: re: higher artistic impulses
Reed Altemus wrote: Please elaborate on what you mean by a "higher artistic impulse". You mean like an aesthetic innovation or just doing what is called "right work". I don't know if I can describe exactly what I am talking about. Everytime I try to define it, I come up with a contradictory explanation, or something that isn't what I mean. I keep running into "Whatever is communicated can only be falsehood and falsification; hence it is only falsehoods and falsifications that are communicated" (from Thomas Bernhard's autobiography which I am reading right now). To try and put as directly and simply as possible, and in a personal manner, so I know exactly what I am talking about: sometimes when I am creating something, I am Creative and what I do seems Special to me (and sometimes to other people as well), while other times, it is obvious that I am "going through the motions"; uninspired and what I do is not special, and I want to erase it or hide it. I agree that self-control is desireable but too one must express the real thing with the first white hot impulse and without second guessing yourself. This is true, but at some point I am always going to ask myself, "is this worth using up any of the world's natural resources to reproduce/distribute/etc?" or "is this worth having anyone else pay attention to it?" And sometimes those white-hot impulses lead to dead-ends! -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: Thomas Bernhard
Reed Altemus Who is Thomas Bernhard, if you don't mind me asking? Thomas Bernard was an Austrian writer who died in 1989. His dozen or so novels (I have read all but 2 and a half that I know have been translated into English) are usually concerned with a male intellectual faced with a spiritual/existential crisis. The books typically cover suicide, insanity, frustration, guilt, anger, remorse, strong anti-Austrian/anti-German/anti-Catholic sentiments. The novel "Gargoyles" is about a writer who has been stuck on the first sentence of his book for seven years, unable to complete it. "Correction" (so extreme in its portrayal of insanity I was unable to complete it) is about a man who is sorting thru the writings of a friend who just killed himself. "Extinction" is about a man who must deal with the deaths of his estranged parents who were Nazi sympathizers and supporters during the War. Bernhard's rather unique writing style is a somewhat maddening stream-of-consciousness rant that fixates on certain words and phrases, constantly repeating and! modifying them, as musical phrases in a fugue evolve. His sentences can go on for pages, and often each book is a single unrelenting paragraph. He won many awards in Austria, but was hated by many for his anti-Austrian rants. According to the introduction of one of his novels, he had a play of his staged at the national theater in Vienna, where all of the high society people go. In the middle of the performance, he played a recording of a Nazi demonstration that was held right outside the theater in the 1930's and apparently attended by same high society people who were in the audience of the play. The introduction to the novel suggested that the audience members were outraged at being confronted with this scene from their past, and the next day the newspapers were filled with wishes that Bernhard leave Austria if he dislikes it. He was a fascinating, insightful, devious, perplexing writer. His writing is sometimes compared with Robert Musil. There is an interesting feature on him at http://www.spikemagazine.com/0299bernhard.htm -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #443
Reed Altemus wrote: "Special"... hmmm I have always disliked preciousness in art. I feel it is a high art professional attitude and it should be done away with. All the artists with their precious objects- I feel an instinctual "NO" My attitude is more like: first invent something, then make a decision whether to call it art or not. Maybe "Special" isn't the right word I should have used. "Worthwhile"? No, maybe "Special" is right. As I wrote before, sometimes I make things and they seem "Special," almost as if they have been given to me from someone else, someone who knows what they are doing. Other times, most of the time!, I come up with garbage. I don't mean "Special" as in "Valuable Artistic Property: Do Not Touch or Photograph!" The blurry color picture I mentioned (http://www.nd.org/jronsen/duchamp14.jpg): might be special. I certainly do not feel ashamed at having you look at it. The other images in that series will probably be erased when I need the hard drive space. The short short story I wrote in 5 minutes and is now being sent to Carol for modification is something that is NOT in any special; it was just a writing exercise, which turned into a mail art project in the hopes that other people could turn it into something special with their modifcations. Maybe this is the wrong way to look at art. One of the things I am interested in collage is when, let's say, taking a bunch of cut out words or colors and throwing them up in the air so they land on a canvas. One time the resulting piece is garbage, the next time it is a masterpiece to behold. I know what you're talking about. Yes, I bore myself silly sometimes. Just today I was working on a couple of things trying something new and just because it was different from anything I had done before, I instantly wanted to censor myself. My insecurities abound likewise. Except for writing, I hardly ever censor myself when creating art. I will try anything I can think of, or at least explore the possibilties in my mind. Then I censor! And erase! And delete! And tape over! Well as far as natural resources goes, if you do printed stuff, do you do it on 100% recycled paper? I do because I don't want any trees to die for my art. As far as asking for people's attention goes, sometimes it isn't. One way to make sure your work is worth people's time is to have it reflect issues that "your group" are interested in, making it pertinent and even useful. I don't focus too much on using recycled paper: I don't produce all that much and I do use a lot of items that have been rescued from the trash. Also, I know I am somewhat hypocritcal in my concerns for the environment, yet I spend so much time on my computer and making electroacoustic music and mailing things around the world... But that is a topic for another day! -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: index card trade
Howdy y'all, I was at the library this evening, just browsing (I love browsing through the library: so many subjects to read about). I was once again thinking of which Duchamp biography to read (any suggestions? I have been reading a string of biographies/autobiographies lately: Stanislaw Lem, Aldous Huxley, Nancy Cunard, Thomas Bernhard; who will be next?), and right above the Duchamp bios was that Oxford University Press book "Art Trends Since 1945" (or "Trends in Art Since 1945"?). Something compelled me to look in it, although I have looked in it before. Lo and behold, someone had left some index cards in it. One was blank, one had a sentence fragment on it, and the third, the third, had a 35-word definition of "Conceptual Art" scrawled on it. This last one I put in my pocket. Now, I am offering this index card to a lucky one of you, in fact, the first one who replies to me saying they want it. The only catch is that the winner has to send me a non-blank index card in return (or something roughly the size of an index card). I want to disqualify Ann K. because she finds Thomas Bernhard boring, but I possess a forgiving nature, so she may enter for the card. On your marks, get set... -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #458
Reed Altemus wrote: Josh, I'd LOVE to see an original definition of conceptual art. Send it to me! Sorry, the mysterious Kraagink (sounds like a title to a Xenakis piece, n'est-pas?) won the index card. Maybe he/she will be kind enough to share it with the list when they get it (or maybe, in parallel to my short short story that is being passed around (who has it now?), they will modify the index card and send it to someone else for further modication...) A poet friend of mine just sent me some defintions, she couldn't track down who devised them: INSTALLATION ART: 1. Room that you would not normally enter without a hard hat. 2. Amusement parks minus the amusement. 3. Poorly-made structures that exist to justify a manifesto. 4. Where the vacuous and the indignant conspire to depict the obvious. PERFORMANCE ART: When a person of limited talents, who can neither write, act, sing, dance nor play a musical instrument, stands in front of an audience of limited sense and fails at all five endeavors at once. Well, I guess that teaches us! BTW I'm reading Lawrence Durell's The Black Book now. Can I participate in yr Durell project? NO! Ok, I guess. Send me your postal address, and I will send you a list of 39 words that appear in Durrell's Nunquam. Your mission: compose a new text using the 39 words (in order preferably) that (preferably) tells a story or is instructional in some way (i.e. prose) (but be creative) (and have fun) (and be brilliant) (oh just forget the rules, ok?). I have started to read the Black Book twice in the past 15 years. I can't get past the first dozen pages. I even own it, and it has sat paitently on my shelves through 10 different apartments, waiting to fulfill its destiny. I could never get into his quartet of books or the quintet. I really wanted to read them. By the way, there is a Henry Flynt tape for sale at http://www.anomalous.com It is from the mid-80s, and on it Flynt plays violin. I think it is $15. If there are any Henry Flynt fans, you might want to be aware of this -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Fluxus: fun vs. non-fun
Timothy Porges writes: i think the point i'm missing here has to do with fun. old fluxus had a lot to do with fun, though it was often twee, Unitarian-church-basement fun. but that was probably just me. So what's fun now? But Fluxus wasn't 100% fun, there was also the element of boredom, i.e. non-fun, that was a part of more than a few works. I am now thinking of Tomas Schmit's piece where he performs until the audience has left and the janitor asks him to leave the stage. That does not sound like fun to perform or watch. But I agree that humor was a large and important indegident in the Fluxus cupcake. Much of this humor, at least when I first started to learn of Fluxus (and similar events) in 1992 was of a good-natured shocking reaction; "They COULDN'T do that, could they?" I almost couldn't believe that people could 1) think up such things and 2) present them as art works/performances. I wasn't outraged; I loved it and laughed along with each piece I read about. And I think part of the humor, for me, was that in 1992 imagining the recation of these pieces in 1962 or whatever. Would these pieces have the same effect now? On us? Or would we just think "oh that's been done before"? -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Re: Fluxus Workbook: Millenial Edition #1
Eryk Salvaggio [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contrary to popular belief; the ideology of the fluxus movement, as stated by George Maciunas, was to liberate art from everyday life, to abolish legitimacy and aggrandizement of the artist. Do you mean "liberate" or "integrate"? I was under the impression that "art" was seperated from "life" and Fluxus activities tried to bring them together, or abolish the distinction, or at least make art "without being raised on a pedestal; it is simple, concrete, and everyone is able to produce it" (Gunter Berghaus). -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen ps: 3 Events for Eryk Salvaggio 1. Raise art onto a pedestal. 2. Seperate art from life. 3. Loose all hope. --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: performance score
ERRATA SCORE Print spurious Errata notices and place them in books in a bookstore or library. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
Re: FLUXLIST: thoughts on fluxus part 2
Sol Nte quotes Thomas Crow:
"The performance need never take place for the piece to exist, though it is
crucial that its enactment in time and space be realizable and
epeatable( this is enough to distinguish such work from poetry)."
This is not an essential element of a Fluxus event/performance score. I can think of a
few scores that are undoable as written, or at least I can't believe were intended to
be actually performed ("crawl into the vagina of a living whale"), and this
impossibility is a hallmark of the possibility of Fluxus.
I do love the poetic flavor in many Fluxus scores. The best of them have a concise,
inticing flow that is difficult (for me) to emulate when I write a score. I want to
specify every little detail, almost as a laboratory experiment. It is difficult to let
go and just write "Steam."
-Josh Ronsen
http://www.nd.org/jronsen
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Bern Porter web page
http://www.aopoetry.com/bern.html --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: words as breadcrumbs
"Breadcrumbs" seems to be a collection of personal utterances, one every day... Very amusing if you like to read random, confusing, non sequiters... http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/breadcrumbs/index.html --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: performance scores?
Is someone still collecting scores for a new Fluxus Workbook? I have a new piece I dream about performing with my brekekekexkoaxkoax ensemble once I actually get an actual ensemble together. I am sure there is a piece similar to this somewhere ENSEMBLE SCORE 1. Announce start of piece. 2. Ensemble enters, sets up equipment, tunes up or otherwise get ready to perform. 3. Pause. 4. Ensemble breaks down equipment and removes fromstage. 5. Ensemble returns for applause. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: attachments
Heiko Recktenwald writes I think after Ken with his 2400 baud modem left things are ok for asttachments again. Hadnt wee numerous files here after that ? As long as they arent bigger than they must be. bw instead of millions of colors. I think Ken's arguments for not sending attachments to Fluxlist are still valid. There are better and more appropriate ways to exchange files. For people who get the digest version (me), attachments appear as a long string of garbled text, and don't they appear as such in the digest? A link to site to download files would be better and smarter, not that being better and smarter is a priority for all. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: avantgarde?
Heiko Recktenwald writes: When fluxus began in the Cage class, they were some of the most avantgarde people of its time. Those who call themself "fluxus" today are not. What does avantgarde mean, today? Who is avantgarde today? These are interesting questions and I do not know how to approach them. Don't hate me, but I have been reading an article about Online (Internet) Education in a recent issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. There is quote from a professor (my copy is at home) who is trying to get "top-notch" universities to let their faculty lecture for his online ed company: to paraphrase-- the avant-garde (in art) and capitalism as similar because they are both concerned with the "new." I disagree with this statement, or at least with the superficial aspects of it. My conception of the avant-garde is one of overturning established orders and ideologies, which I guess could be considered "new," but it is a new mentality. Capitalism is ALWAYS concerned with producing goods or services at a profit, and hasn't changed at all. There is a drive for new goods and markets and a silly marketing spin on Internet Business as "the New Economy" (tm), but it isn't. Now the relation between art and capitalism can be scary: is the avant-garde in art just the capitalist quest for new markets? Ack! I hope not. Maybe it has become that. For me, if the avant-garde is "overturning established orders and ideologies," the one it should be directed against is capitalism. I'd be interested in thoughts/reactions on this topic. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy.
FLUXLIST: Another giveaway from Josh R...
Yea! Fluxlist is back. I had sent out the below offer when Fluxlist was down and was wondering why no one claimed it. I am offering, for free, to the first person who claims it, 1 unopened package of Sponch. The only requirement is that you must have no idea what Sponch is, or attempt to find out before it arrives. Email me first, and it is yours (and maybe you will send me something of "equal" value in return, although Sponch is very much an unequaled thing in the world...). -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen ps: whatever happened to my short short story that was being passed around for modifications/improvements? Did it fall into the hands of someone who loves it so much they are going to keep it? Who had it last? Has it been modified so much that it can't be mailed? DId someone eat it? --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: painting
A recent digital painting: http://www.nd.org/jronsen/1124.jpg -Josh Ronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: Stasick's complicated pricing scheme....
Rod Stasick writes of his exhibit at the deYoung Museum: Tickets: Tickets: $7 adults, $5 seniors 65 and over, $4 youth 12-17, children under 12 free. Admission is free the first Wednesday of each month. Is there a discount for those who can spell Fluxlist? What about the first full moon of each month? Is there a high tides surcharge? Please tell us more about the exhibit? Will any of it be online? -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Dick Higgins info
Here are a few links to interviews and essays by/about Dick Higgins: a) 1993 interview with Dick Higgins: http://www.cta.dmu.ac.uk/HSS/oldhss/cca/dhiggins.html b) INVENTORY OF THE DICK HIGGINS PAPERS, 1960-1994 at the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities: http://www.getty.edu/gri/htmlfindingaids/higgins_m1.html c) A BOOK [an essay by Dick Higgins]: http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/bookarts/1996/02/msg00116.html d) Life and Its Shadow: The Art/Life Dichotomy [an essay by Dick Higgins]: http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag97/higgin/sm-higgn.htm e) Fluxus History and Trans-History: Competing Strategies for Empowerment [essay by ? that mentions Higgins]: http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/atca/subjugated/one_2.htm -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #645
A Dick Higgins essay "A Short History of Pattern Poetry" has just been posted on http://www.ubu.com/feature/papers/feature_higgins_pattern.html ubu.com is a great resource on sound poetry, and also features the sound clips from the Fluxus Anthology CD, if you haven't heard them, as well as "Report from Eye Rhymes Conference" from Judith Hoffberg. I must go and read all of this now... -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: The Big Topics
Alex Cook writes: I'm working on a series of multiples called "The Big Topics" and trying to come up with what they are. What are your suggestions? I'm looking for succinct one-word big topics like: LOVE, DEATH, LIFE, WAR SALAD SHOELACES SPLINTER BALDNESS INDECISION APATHY LUNCH Those topics rule my everyday life. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Texas not all bad...
what does one expect from Bush country? (not to denigrate the texans on the list... You better not denigrate us Texas on the list, or, or, or we'll leave the Union and become an independent country again. And besides, what state was smart enough to get Bush to leave it? HE is now more of your problem than he is ours. (ha ha ha). Just to show that all in Texas isn't what you might think of it, below is a link to a recent article on Austin mail artists (Honoria, Diana Garcia and some geeky dude). The tape music mentioned is from the (first?) Fluxlist Box -- I was hoping the author would talk more about it. It was one of the examples of mail art I displayed in detail for her. http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-03-23/arts_string_all.html -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: June Pink
I am looking for an old tomato seed called "Nam June Pink". Please let me know if you have heard of it or know where I can get the seeds. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: The Hunt
While sorting and sifting through piles of papers in my workroom, I came across a piece of paper for "The Hunt," a scavenger hunt activity in which the players have to go to houses and get people to do certain things (but without specifying exactly what needs to get done). I have no idea where this came from. Anyways, I am going to send this piece of paper to the first Fluxlister who responds to me. The only restrictions are, 1) you have to send me some piece of paper in return, and 2) you have to do as many of the items on the list as possible. Note, the instructions for "The Hunt" clearly state "be back at 2:30." -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: VisitOften
Reed Altemus writes: Myself I will be taking a course in web design this spring through the adult ed program in Portland and plan to put up my own webpage (finally!) myself. You do know that you can look at the source code of most web sites by clicking on View and then "View Source" or "Page Source". This will display the HTML format and you can learn A LOT just by looking at what other people have done. Sometimes you can't see the source b/c it is hidden within frames, and also you can't view java stuff this way, but still there is a lot to get you started. If you are serious in wanting to learn web page design, you should start looking at the souce code of every page you visit... Good luck, -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Peter Brotzmann
Saxophonist Peter Brotzmann will be playing in Austin later this month. The press release states: German multi-reedist Peter Brotzmann is one of the most uncompromising jazz artists alive. He began his artistic career as a painter in the early years of the Fluxus movement. Does anyone have further info on his involvement? I don't have the Fluxus Codex handy. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: the first 100 days
Patricia sends in: The following is a poem composed entirely of actual quotes from George W. The quotes have been arranged by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. [poem deleted] God damn. So he is stupid and talks funny: cut him some slack. I'm sure if you were a stupid, funny-talking son of a one-termer and were just a tiny pawn in the hands of huge mega-corporations you wouldn't want people to pick on every little thing you said. :) -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: 4:33, Cage Counterfactual Computation
Sol Nte opines: The moral of this story is don't let quantum mechanics fix your car! Newtonian mechanics are preferable if less interesting ;) You are forgetting the remote (but non-zero) probability of all your atoms suddenly tunneling to your destination: you can't beat the gas mileage on that! (or petro kiloage? Hell, what do they call gas mileage in the UK?) -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Throw stuff in my creek!
Hello, Fluxlisters, I am moving this month to a place that has a creek in the backyard. Although I am a month shy of 32 years old, I still have a huge, immature desire to throw stuff in the creek. So, I am asking you to send me things to throw into the creek. Little fishies live in it, so please, nothing harmful to them (although, considering the creek is mostly fed by run-off from the streets of Austin, I'm not sure how clean it is to begin with). I will document the throwings in some way. Send to: Josh Ronsen PO Box 7896 Austin TX 78713 USA deadline: soon Maybe if I throw enough things into it, I can enter this in Jason Pierce's blockade tournament recently mentioned on Fluxlist. -Josh --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Re: fluxlistbox
hey. hey, hey it did arrived my flulistbox! i cant' belive thanks sol pez - After all this time There is an article in the most recent (?) issue of Umbrella about a postcard that took 112 years to go from Scotland to Australia. I guess we can consider ourselves lucky... -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: Invitation to join the Axolotl-Sounds group
You've been invited to join the Axolotl-Sounds group, Just how many sounds can an Axolotl make? On a related note: there was a brief article on the Scientific American website about a recent discovery on how lobsters make noise, which will be welcome news to anyone that knew that lobsters could make noise. The link is: http://www.sciam.com/news/051001/3.html which contains a link to a video interview with the lobster scientist and her bruitish friends. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: poetry overload
Carol Starr writes: who are these sneaky people complaining off list. i enjoy john's peotry very much and i have been under the inpression that that fluxlist is about freedom of expression in the arts. And certainly this freedom includes complaining about poetry overload. But I'm not a complainer, I'm an aeroplaner. aeroplaner clop stand oh the piner blate Custer butter macking is our blipless month gloomed bike shone 'm gabbled hen slow bake, small fat wigging. u-blank-turn, root precession, stable paddywack w/o fought gease (shuttle all da diner mages) -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: Questions (anti-art)
A day after I posted my question, I came across the following passage in Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde by Georgina Born: However much an avant-garde attempts to produce work that is unclassifiable, shockingly different, it is a truism that in order to be meaningful [sic!] it must, by definition, ultimately be classifiable as art by an audience; or it may be understood as the negation of art -- the reaction that the avant-garde typically sets out to provoke in the Philistine audience. The latter against art classification appears, historically, to be particularly permeable, so that by the intervention of critics, against art comes eventually to be undersood as part of art. There remains some avant-garde art that is unacceptable to all but small and knowing audience. But as long as anti- or avant-garde art is recognized as legitimately part of art by the dominant institutional apparatuses, it is granted the status of art and becomes a negational statement within the field of art: a powerful agrument for the ontological priority of the institutional over the aesthetic. So there. But what can she mean by meaning can only be found in art? -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: while i'm at it
jason pierce writes: i agree with everything josh says or will say on the issue of anti art. I disagree with everything Jason says or will say on the issue of anti-art, including the above statement. I think Jason is making fun of me b/c I haven't (yet/recently) made any statements on the issue, just asking questions about what people think. About Born's comment about something has to be art to be meaningful... I really like thinking about the limits of art, or the perceptions of art. Perhaps before talking about anti-art, I should have asked what is art? Suppose I had an event score Give $10 to a homeless person. I do this. Does the homeless person think it is art? Probably not. Is it meaningful? Probably so. Suppose I have an event score Send a nasty letter to someone you don't know. I do this. the person reads the letter. Does he think it is art? Probably not. Does he find it meaningful? Probably so. This afternoon I spent hours going through boxes of tapes from hundreds or people around the world, really really bad noise music tapes, much of them existing seemingly for the sole purpose of using the word shit in the title. I am sure all of this was intended to be art. I view it as such. Did I find it meaningful? No I did not. Someone comes up to you and gives you a flower. Is it art? Is it meaningful? -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: Jason Pierce = Bully
Mick Boyle asks: I don't think anyone likes a bully. I like Jason Pierce, except for when he is right and I am wrong, and when he refuses to look for a tape that we recorded in Chicago 6 years ago. A really really bad noise tape? It wasn't that bad, I assure you. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: anti-art, meaning, quote, dolls, erosion-worn rock, etc.
Ann Klefstad steps up to the mic and says: You know, the writer you quote wasn't saying that art is the only thing that has meaning; she was essentially saying that the meaning of art-intended gestures is inflected by their relationship to the art-meaning realm. My question was worded poorly. She wrote: it is a truism that in order to be meaningful it must, by definition, ultimately be classifiable as art by an audience But surely art can have meaning for someone if it is not seen as art. It just wont be written about in Artforum or Time magazines. It seems to me that she was placing certain kinds of art at a privileged position to other kinds of art, maybe kinds of art that she wouldnt even consider to be art. Maybe this was just a slip of the tongue on her part, as the book as a whole deals with publicly subsidized avant-garde art (particularly the French IRCAM music center). There is something fishy about the idea that an artist puts meaning into a work which is then extracted by a viewer. I would say that in most cases meaning is put in, and then in most cases meaning is taken out, but then there doesnt have to be any correlation between the two. Maybe the anti-art I am interested in is whatever cannot be viewed as art. Meaning is always dependent on the mutually agreed upon context in which a communication is made. If one person intends the communication to be made and understood in one context, and the other person doesn't know this or disagrees, then confusion results. But there are many cases where there is no mutually dependent context, and many more where that context is generated by someone other than the artist. Consider prehistorical rock art or cave paintings. We can speculate what they were trying to do, but we dont know. We can surely appreciate what they did without knowing what meaning they had put into it. I like thinking about situations where the intended will or meaning of the artist is completely unknown. Like getting a strange package in the mail full of painted leaves with no return address or note. Or, someone just told me about this (but I forget the exact details), walking in the forest off trail and finding a huge pile of childrens dolls and used ammo clips, or something equally strange. Or maybe finding some strangely smooth rock in the wilderness: is it just a rock, or was it at sometime a created piece of art with profound mystical meaning for its maker? Perhaps all of this is confusion as you say. I think that word has certain unwholesome connotations that maybe you dont intend. Do I sound like a post-structuralist yet? Release some act into the realm of communication, and it ceases to be only yours, it becomes public property, and many others will have their way with it. Maybe we are saying the same thing. But I am interested in the idea of things intended to be art and not seen as such, and things that arent intended to be art but are seen as such. Please respond Ann! You write interesting things and I only disagree with you to make you write more! -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #739
The problem with me thinking about this subject is that I do not have a good definition of art. As someone trained as a scientist, I need a good definition or axiom to begin. So: Art is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects -http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary Thus: Anti-art is the unconscious use of chance and unorigional matter-of-factness found sometimes in the gathering of banal raw material. OK. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: ant-art
kulturkampf! Situationist, Post-Situ, Anti-Art Articles can be found at http://www.subsitu.com/kr/situ.htm This collection included articles by Guy Debord, Hakim Bay and Bob Black. Who has time to read these for me? -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: anti-art
ANTI-ART: In the visual arts, work that is exhibited in a conventional context but makes fun of serious art or challenges the nature of art; it is characteristic of Dada. Marcel Duchamp is credited with introducing the term around 1914, and its spirit is summed up in his attempt to exhibit a urinal (Fountain 1917). The term is also used to describe other intentionally provocative art forms, for example, nonsense poetry. -From The Hutchinson Family Encyclopedia, http://ebooks.whsmithonline.co.uk/encyclopedia/34/M0040434.htm -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: The last word in anti-art
art ha ha. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Eat yr Art Out documentation
I just got a nice flyer for the Eat Your Art Out mail art exhibit at the Cafe Prov in London. This was organized by Martha Aitchison, Julia Tant, Alan Turner and Patricia Collins. A few of the many participants are Fluxlisters: David Chirot, John M. Bennett, Josh Ransen (who's that?), and Melissa McCarthy (from her Box Upon Wan address). Now, the only problem is that I have no recollection of what I submitted to this project. The exhibition will be up, according to the documentation, until October. Would someone in England be willing to go to 16a Coldharbour Lane in London and see what I sent them? Here are 2 new projects from the same people: APPLES! on a postcard (with no envelope) for the next show at the Cafe Prov. Deadline End October 2001 EX-LIBRIS Design a book plate media a size free for yourself or a celebrity, for your book collection or an imaginary library, for a book of your own choice or a book of your own invention. The book plates will be displayed in a library in London and documentation sent to all. Deadline End December 2001 Send to The Shopping Trolley Gallery PO Box 108 Beckenham BR3 1GY UK -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: anti-art
Ann Klefstad writes ...most of the world is anti-art. The world mostly dislikes and distrusts most artmaking and would like it to go away. It depends how you define art. Do you think Madonna's music is art? Or the latest Hollywood blockbuster? If these things, clearly supported by millions (in Western culture) aren't art, why aren't they? Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread, many interesting points have been made. In the next few days I will try to compile the main points of what everyone has contributed. I don't know if I understand things any better, but I have a lot more thoughts to digest from people whose thoughts I would want to digest... -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: exerpt from Poisoned Jerusalum
jason pierce wrote: He who has suffer'd you to impose on him, knows you. [diary of a peach] etc This would make a great piece for performance, with one voice (I imagine a deep manly voice) reading the first part, and another voice (I imagine a chirpy female voice) interuppting with the other. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: Stopwords
Heiko Recktenwald wrote: a above according across actually adj after etc 10 long years ago, I decided I was going to write poetry by cutting up words from two other poems (a long Sylvia Plath poem and Cage's Where Are We Going? What Are We Doing?) and combining them. I spent a week, cutting all the words onto little bits of paper. First I sorted all the words by length in a LISP computer program I had written, which sorted them alphabetically by word length (to conserve paper). My initial experiments in making poetry were awful. I'd grab a handful of words and put them on the table and try to arrange them into something meaningful. Producing not much worth reading. The poetry made by my LISP program TUNC (a reference to the poetic supercomputer of the Lawrence Durrell novel of the same name), was much better. Anyway, so now I have a few small boxes full of words. Sometimes when I have people over to my house in my workroom, I will grab a box and announce Everybody grab a word! and I make them take the word with them. Maybe in 20 years I will have gotten rid of all the words. Unless, someone on Fluxlist wants a envelope with a few words... -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: call for papers on Fluxus
Owen Smith asks for a call for papers on Fluxus Here it is: PAPERS FLUXUS -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Boulez, Andersen and democracy
Eric Andersen writes: And rotate list owners. For the next 6 months let's appoint brad brace. Bukoff and the rest to step down. I just finished reading Rationalizing Culture, a sociological look at the French IRCAM music research center. During 1984, one of the departments decided that they were not going to have a department head, but rather decide all important decisions through democratic means. After an hour of discussion, Pierre Boulez, then director of IRCAM, stated that he was appointing a department head and the rest of the department could now vote to accept his decision. I got the impression that it was a 1 choice vote... Thankfully, Eric Andersen is not director of Fluxlist. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: listowners/email
Eric Andersen wrote: Listowners not respected should step down. Last time I checked, I respected the Fluxlist listowners, including Sol and Judith. Now note Fluxlisters: when I replied to Eric's message, I just quoted the small part that was relevant to the discussion. I deleted the page of previous emails that have been clogging up the last few digests. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: The artification of Ono's anti-art
Eryk Salvaggio wrote: At one point, there was the Yoko Ono Nail piece, with the hammers and a bucket of nails, which confused a seven year old girl to no end. She couldn't understand why the nails and hammers were out in the open if people weren't allowed to put nails into the canvas, on account of all of the enormous Do Not Touch The Art signs. It was pretty great, and probably the best critique of Yoko Ono's work I'd heard. The big Yoko Ono exhibit YES YOKO ONO is now showing at the Houston Contemporary Museum of Art, which I am somewhat excited to see. What I am not excited to see is how the pieces from the 60's have turned from interesting pieces of art into do-not-touch museum commodity objects. For example, I called the museum yesterday and asked if one could climb the ladder in Celing Piece. No, of course not, was the answer. It is a sad day when anti-art turns into art... Maybe when I go I can make my own mini version of the piece. One would climb a step-stool that had a pole attached to it. Hanging from the pole would be a string holding a magnifying glass and a little piece of paper that says NO. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: slight wear at spine
That reminds me: I have a handful of found items collected by Seth Tisue (http://tisue.net) from Chicago. Since Seth is not an artist (as far as I know), the value of these objects can only go up Up UP! A HANDFUL OF FOUND ITEMS (1999-2000) Seth Tisue 1 handful $400 Payment by U.S. cash only. I will provide a certificate of authenticity and an attractive storage envelope free of charge. Please reserve by email before sending payment. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: the robbery
Brad Brace wrote: Please describe the stolen shoes. /:b Now that's Fluxus! Bibiana, I think you should do a bit of research into voodoo (?)curses and stick needles into left-behind sandals. Maybe if the curse works he will return your stuff and apologize. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: FLUXLIST-digest V1 #810
FLUXLIST-digest Thursday, August 30 2001 Volume 01 : Number 810 Dear Fluxlist Administrators and Administrative Staff, Last night I recieved Fluxlist Digest #810 of volume 1. What a large number! Could we start volume 2 before the number gets any higher? In fact, could we just skip volume 2 and go directly to volume 3? Thank you for your time, A concerned Fluxlist member, -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: RE: subtitled
jason pierce writes: the Twelve Fate Game is now subtitled in mandarin http://www.onyxmirr.org/Game.html I have made a movie version of the Twelve Fates, which was to have been premiered at the Intersect 4 festival in Austin last month, but technical difficulties kept the digital film on my hard drive and not on VHS tape. Maybe someday it will be available by CDROM or online somewhere. It is a fun game to play, especially if you need a game to take your mind off the events of today... -Josh Ronsen ps: I saw the Yoko Ono retrospecive in Houston this weekend. I'll send a write-up soon. --== Sent via Deja.com ==-- http://www.deja.com/
FLUXLIST: Re: mail art/anthrax scare
Patricia wrote: I doubt that mail art will ever be quite the same after this. For me, most especially, the recycling (i.e., taping, etc.) of envelopes. For others, the mailing of the odd object and the documentation thereof. I have been concerned about this and have been not sending out some projects, which might be silly. I am sure most mail artists are used to getting weird post from strangers. I am starting a project for mail artists in Texas called Texas Association for Concerned Mail Artists (TACMA). I am not sure what we are concerned about, but I started thinking about this project and group name about a year ago, so it is not meant to be about Recent Concerns, or any particular concerns. I really just needed an extra letter for the acronym because there is already a TAMA out there. So if you are a mail artist in Texas (and I probably already know who you are), send me your address to recieve instructions to join. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Fluxwar
Not including Yoko Ono's highly visable actions, what were Fluxus responses to the Vietnam War? -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: lost souls
Patricia writes: The Lost Soul Companion Project Mail Art Show The Lost Soul Companion Project offers comfort and constructive advice for black sheep, square pegs, struggling artists, and other free spirits. A while back someone posted to Fluxlist (I won't mention who: no need for further embarassment) that he had lost his soul. Although the soul was presumably lost in Europe, I happened to spot it here in Texas and I sent him a photo of it. Actually, I don't remember what I sent, but I sent something because I just found a nice reply from him thanking me for having spotted the missing soul. Was this soul ever found? Perhaps the person missing it could give us an update. -Josh Ronsen http://www.nd.org/jronsen Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Super-Uber-Fluxus
Super-Uber-Fluxus? -Josh Ronsen Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Uber-Fluxus
Uber-Fluxus? -Josh Ronsen Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Welcome piece
Welcome for Joseph Zitt: Give everyone a word. [to be performed during Joseph Zitt's performance in Austin later this month] -Josh Ronsen brekekekexkoaxkoax Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: 52 events
Fluxus, whose membership famously included Yoko Ono, can be seen in retrospect as one of the key postwar art movements; a continuation of Surrealism and Dadaism, and the launching pad for Conceptual, Installation and Anarcho-dandyist Art. What, pray tell, is Anarcho-dandyist Art? Is a special hat needed? Or is this a term that makes sense in England, but not in America? -Josh Ronsen in America Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: 52 events
What, pray tell, is Anarcho-dandyist Art? Is a special hat needed? Or is this a term that makes sense in England, but not in America? No this term doesn't make sense in England but then again the review is from a Scottish newspaper. So it may be a term in use in Scotland but I doubt it...I think its invented for the article...it's a good word though and bereft of any meaning at all I'd imagine since anarchism and the socio-political ideas of the dandy are mutually exclusive. See, I think I am missing something. In America, a dandy is a nicely-dressed effeminate man, although I think use of that term went out decades ago. Do these people have socio-political ideas in England? Some special hats for your consideration: http://www.chapellerie-traclet.com/images/chapmelon.gif http://www.chapellerie-traclet.com/images/chapeauclaque.gif http://users.rcn.com/xmel2/joel/joel6-12.html http://www.babybeehats.com/duck.jpg http://www.babybeehats.com/prairie_bonnet.jpg http://www.milliner.co.uk/images/thm_ssl.jpg http://www.australiagift.com/golf_shop/hat.htm http://woodwool.tripod.com/images/Strawberrybg.JPG http://www.mikethehatter.com/img/leopard.jpg http://www.mikethehatter.com/img/7012.jpg http://www.yarranet.net.au/phill/images/hat/hat_06_lil_me.jpg -Josh Ronsen, not nicely-dressed, not effeminate, not wearing a hat Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: chronic reflux
I'd like to have one of these... -Josh Ronsen Willem De Ridder Paper Fluxwork New York, NY: ReFlux Editions. 1990 Synopsis: A series of 14 cards printed with complicated instructions to help you construct impossible paper works. After you've cut here, folded there, and glued here, you eventually come across a card which reads: don't perform this event. Oops. Transparent plastic box from original Fluxus source, containing 14 vintage printed cards. Vintage Maciunas-designed label. Category: Multiple Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 9.3 x 12 x 16 cm. Process: offset-printed Color: black-and-white Edition unlimited Signed: Unsigned and Unnumbered Price Info: $100.00 Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: everyone a winner?
WINE DRINKING PERFORMANCE (or punch, coffee, pop, whatever) 1 Select unknowing person to time. 2 Punch stopwatch when they start drinking, sipping, etc. 3 Punch watch when they finish 4 Time at least three people 5. Award prize to slowest and fastest! - -Don Boyd, April 11, 2002 Why 3 people? Why not make it for two people so that everyone is a winner? Also give an award to clock puncher. -Josh Ronsen in Texas Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: 50/50
50/50: great idea! Sign me up! Maybe I'll send in 50 pages of ! -Josh Ronsen in Texas Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: interviews with Knowles
Besides Fluxus: a Conceptual Country and M/E/A/N/I/N/G, where may I find interviews with Alison Knowles? -Josh Ronsen Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: badgergal
Carol Starr writes: very interesting alice because i refer to myself as a woman. with so many texans around 'girl' sounds derogatory. What?! Texans use the word gal. Or ma'am. Or filly if she is particularly cute. At least some Texans do. But then Texas ain't the place it used to be. They let me in here... After the expulsions, what will be the first order of business for the anti-Fluxus group? Do we need an anti-FLUXLIST? I think we do with a complicated scheme to determine who can post to Fluxlist and the anti-Fluxlist at any given time, depending on phases of moon, sunspot count and/or mold count in Peoria. -Josh Ronsen reporting from Austin, Texas Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: nonsense, in German
Wir Klumpen es aller zusammen und hoffen es ausfallen, mit Federn und Flaum und Losen anderen Materials, der Kissen und der Weiden und des kleinen geschmackvollen schrei, hdlt es nicht zusammen, aber eine was f|r Tduschung! -Josh Ronsen Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Mieko Shiomi
http://www.anomalousrecords.com has the following two items for sale in their latest catalog update: * Mieko ShiomiFluxus Suite (Musical Dictionary of 80 People around Fluxus) CD $18.99 the first CD by Japanese Fluxus member and founder of Group Ongaku. to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Fluxus, she has composed eighty short musical pieces for eighty Fluxus friends (from Dietrich Albrecht to Marian Zazeela). the pieces are performed solo on the synthesizer, and in some cases have amusing nods the person's style of work. for example, the piece dedicated to George Brecht uses sounds that resemble dripping water; the one dedicated to Philip Corner sounds like one of his piano pieces. ? Records Germany ?10 Mieko ShiomiShadow Event No. Ybooklet $9.99 30th booklet, 1993. 48 pages with text and a silk-screen on transparent folio and a cardboard cover, offset-print. Edition of 500 copies, 15 x 11 cm. a very Fluxus piece as it is a set of instructions of things to do to a shadow you would make by projecting light through the clear plastic insert with only the word SHADOW stenciled on it. Edition Hundertmark Germany 30. Heft Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: event score trade
When I saw the Yes Yoko Ono exhibit in Houston last (?) year, I walked away with many of her event scores printed on 2 inch square pieces of paper (I didn't steal them, they were there to be taken by the audience). I will mail you one of these scores, many written in 1961, if you mail me an event score of your own for me to perform at some future date. Here are some considerations: I don't eat pork, I don't take off my clothes in public and I generally avoid rolling around in bodily fluids. -Josh Ronsen 2001 Brentwood Austin Texas 78757 USA Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: ACME Observatory presented a concert of early FLUXUS works
See http://www.4-33.com/ for details. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: not talking to you either
OK, specifically who is not talking to me? I have lost track. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: easy reading materials
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: dont you all think that most of the fluxus books are boring reading? Too much listing etc. are there any fluxus books a slow reader would enjoy? I am working on a FLUXUS FOR DUMMIES book. Lots of pictures and diagrams, no big words, few names (and none of the difficult to pronounce ones), easy-to-follow instructions (think of dance steps with the black and white footprints)... Feel free to submit a chapter or sidebar. I've still got about 200 pages to go. It would be great to get some material written by people who know very little about Fluxus (the ol' blind leading the blind effect). -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXLIST-digest V3 #348
Rod Stasick writes: Crispin Webb leaves the 10,000th Fluxlist post! Maybe someone should repost the very first Fluxlist post in celebration. Rod, are you currently in Texas? -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: ken friedman on the list...
Ken Friedman is an informative, helpful writer and a wonderful correspondant and I feel honored to have been in contact with him. And even when I disagree with his views, I do so with respect. The amount of informative substance on Fluxlist has dramatically dropped since he left. I have collected many of his essays that he has posted on this list (and elsewhere on the net) into a little booklet Ken Friedman on Fluxus which exists in a very limited edition of 1 (if you're ever in Texas, stop by and borrow it!). Maybe before the end of the year I will make a list of links to his essays for those who did not see them when first posted. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: listen
So what does everyone on this list listen to? I am still very much interested in the modernist/avant-garde composers Ligeti, Xenakis, Nono, Scelsi, Stockhausen, and Cage and Feldman whose works exist on another level. Ligeti continually surprises me. I just listened to the recent Sony CD of his keyboard works: a new recording of his organ work Harmonies in which Ligeti himself lays his body on the organ bellows, and moving his body, produces a weird, unearthly sound morphology, as if the organ tones are fading in and out of reality. In previous versions of this work, power to the bellows was turned off and on to produce strange effects, but Ligeti's body manipulation takes these effects to the extreme. I have not yet heard Ligeti's symphonic poem for 100 metronomes, which was listed in an early Fluxus publication. I do not know the story of its creation or how it was included in the Fluxus publication. Anybody know the story? (here is a photo of a 1989 performance: http://www.schott-cms.com/nocache/gyl/cds/) Here is a photo of Boulez touching his chin while he looks at Ligeti: http://www.schott-cms.com/nocache/gyl/fotos/6,b38de0d8f95.html Here is an mp3 file of the carhorn prelude from his anti-anti-opera Le Grande Macbre: http://www.schott-cms.com/12publish/cms/resources/gyl/6179d1c8360.mp3 The 2 versions I have heard previously have used electric horns: this version is seemingly done with old-fashioned horns. Other sampes can be found here: http://www.schott-cms.com/nocache/gyl/special/ton/ -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: spirit of Fluxus
Don Boyd writes: The Spirit of Fluxus, as I understood it, what attracted me to it, was the expansiveness, the willingness to support others and their ideas, in fact forgiveness and inclusiveness. I don't see that in these recent exchanges. I've always been attracted to the darker side of Fluxus history, the expulsions, arguments, excommunications, the protest of Stockhausen by Henry Flynt and Tony Conrad (and Conrad's more recent protest of a LaMonte Young concert). If art is beautiful, must anti-art be ugly? But your point is taken, Don, and I hereby forgive those people on Fluxlist who recently were not talking to me... -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: ken friedman on the list...
Carol Starr wrote: josh i agree with you about ken friedman and still feel it is a great loss that he left the list. i too have a collection of the essays he posted on the list. so perhaps there are two limited editions, i wonder if they are the same? Mine has a little photo of him about to toss a watermellon. Yours? -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXUS FOR DUMMIES
Don Boyd writes: Josh, How about an old snail mail address? I was just kidding about working on Fluxus for Dummies book, but it would make a welcome addition to the more absurd titles in that series, like Judism for Dummies and Doctorial Studies in High Energy Physics for Dummies. OK, the latter isn't real, but the other one is. A Fluxus for Dummies book would be good. For years I thought of taking a book on children's games written in the 1950s and modifying the text. The result could be very close to Fluxus for Dummies. There are a number of these books at my local library, but when I flip through them, I don't get any interesting ideas on how to procede. Don, if you send me anything, I still have some Yoko Ono event scores printed on small pieces of paper I could send in return. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: FLUXLIST BOX #2?
Friends, Is it not time to start thinking of a second FluxList Box? I treasure the first one and I love showing it to visitors. While recently thinking of the Fluxus for Dummies book that will never get finished, I thought that a FluxList box is a project I could tend to completion. Who is in it with me? Should we have the same parameters as last time? I have not began to look for boxes. I would prefer that the theme of the box be kept free (i.e. open to any interpretation), but I would like to suggest two titles: a) Box #2: FluxList for Dummies b) FluxList Box for Peace However, everything is open for debate. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: more Ligeti stories
A concurrent preoccupation was a strong influence of Duchampian dadaism. His 000, a satire of John Cage, has been described as the briefest composition ever written, and Cage is said to have been deeply offended; The Future of Music (1961) is scored for a mute speaker in front of an audience. But the most celebrated piece in this vein, the Poème symphonique of 1962, for 100 metronomes, is both a provocation and a peculiarly plastic expression of machinery gone awry, an idea incorporated compositionally in several works to memorable effect, the most famous example being the Meccanico movement of the Chamber Concerto, written some nine years later. -from http://www.sospeso.com/contents/composers_artists/ligeti.html The premiere [of Poeme symphonique] in Holland in l963 caused a great scandal. -from http://www.binaural.com/binnews2.html According to the Sony web page, Ligeti worked at the West German Radio electronic studio from 1957 to 1959, which makes sense as his two electronic works date from this time. Paik was there from 1958 to 1963. There doesn't seem to be much info online about the interestion of these two artists. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: FLUXLIST Box #2
Owen writes: I am willing to organize again, although I am also more than willing to pass the mantel on if someone else wants to take on the role of organizer for the project, Josh? From my point of view, the first Box went so well that I think you SHOULD do it. However, I am willing to do it. So far after a day or so, 16 people have expressed interest in the project. If we go ahead with this, the box must be chosen. Any ideas? My wife suggests I go to The Container Store (yes, the U.S. has a chain of stores that specializes in stuff to put other stuff in...) and see if anything looks promising. I will also see what we have laying around the junk closets at school. There are some interesting boxes here, but not enough for this project. I think a CDR would be a great inclusion. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: 0'00
What is Ligeti's 0'00 ? I assume it is a joke of Ligeti on Cage's 4'33 and not related to Cage's 0'00 from 1962 (subtitled 4'33 No. 2). For all his pride in the piece, Cage maintained that his sole intervention was to alert listeners to ambient noise. His was a clear and humble statement of creative disownership. He raised no objection when younger composers built upon his breakthrough in 4'33 - notably when the German-based Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti issued a concise version titled 0'00. -from http://www.naxos.com/newDesign/fopinions.files/bopinions.files/opinions133.htm Although I do not take the above quote to be proof of anything w/o a precise citation. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: 0'00
Roger STEVENS writes: - - or if you followed 4'33 with Ligeti's 0'00 rather than Cage's. How would you be able to tell the difference? I have not found out what the score/instructions for Ligeti's piece are. The stage setup could be quite elaborate, although brief. On Cage's 0'00: The title isn't the length of the piece, but rather the (Zen) instant of now that occurs when the performer undertakes his disciplined action. One could say the performer of 4'33 has a disciplined action, but this action, if you think about it, is paying attention to the passage of time, counting off the 3 movements of the piece. In 0'00 does not constrain the performer in such a way. The performer's (complete) attention is on the task, which unfolds however it unfolds and not due to the score. 0'00 is also interesting as it does not even specify the action, just the dynamic environment (maximun amplification). It was composed (and first performed) on October 24, 1962. I generally hate the who did something first game, but what Fluxus/pre-Fluxus event scores before this did not specify a particular action? It would become a common practice later (i.e. performance with Mr. T. from 1964 (I assume)). -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: 0'00
Roger Stevens writes: so you could perform both of the Cage pieces at the same time. That would be interesting. And the 0'00 piece could actually last for 4'33 The two pieces could be performed at the same time, but Cage did not want the performance of 0'00 to be the performance of another score. It had to be a discliplined action fulfilling an obgligation to another. The first performance, by Cage, was writing the score as a gift for Yoko Ono and Toshi Ichiyanagi. Cage has also performed this piece by typing letters that needed to be answered. When I have performed this, I wrote a thank you note to a member of the audience (for showing up) and wrote a letter to a friend in Chicago. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: More ideas about the box
I went to the Container Store last night. I don't like the idea of the store, a place to buy stuff to put your stuff in: I am totally a stuff qua stuff kind of guy myself. Some items I saw there that could be useful to us: a) Plastic bags: 9 x 12 plastic, ziploc: about $0.23 each b) Clear plastic jars: about 8 high, square base, with 6 diameter round top with plastic lid: $1 each (plastic is somewhat thin, you could squeeze the jar with your hand) c) tape cassette case made of translucent mylar-like plastic, with metal holder for a label in front: $7 d) display case for a softball made from clear plastic, case only opens by pulling apart the correct two sides (each side is U-shaped that fits together seamlessly): $5 (I do not know if a CDR will fit in here) e) an 8 clear plastic globe that comes apart in two halves: $2.50 marked down to $1.25 (I do not know if I could get 50 or 100 of these). I think the globe would be interesting. Each half has a part to tie a string to to hang the globe. I am sure we could get any of these items cheaper from an online source. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: More ideas about the box
A paint can? http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?PRODID=62625CATID=262 We would have to get a round case for the CDR, at least for the 16oz can. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Re: new subscription rules
brad brace wrote: I think that karei should assume the role of list-administrator. I think we each should spend a day as list administrator. We can then each kick off, or invite (or neither) whomever we wanted. Things would even out at the end, unless the last administrator is a nihilist and kicks everyone off and disbands the list. Who here is a nihilist? -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
FLUXLIST: Study reveals complex Republican culture
Something forwarded to me... Study reveals complex Republican culture by Roberto R. Bentley Remember how the television show The Waltons used to end each evening: Good night, John Boy. Good night, Mary Ellen. Good night, Grandpa. In Republican culture, there's a little less formal way to say good night: Ppppt. It's the spluttering raspberry sound that normal humans use in jest or sarcasm. Researchers say this vocalization, plus more than two dozen other signals and skills observed in wild Republicans, provide evidence that these great politicians show cultural variations. Their culture, described as geographically distinct behaviors, comes from observing and mimicking their peers. It goes above and beyond what's instinctive, and what they learn from their fathers. So who do young Republicans look to for role models in gaining this playful and productive know-how? Those who have the money-raising skills are the coolest, said Carol van Schaik, professor of political anthropology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Her research is published in this week's Political Science magazine. Many of the skills involved access to power, prestige and monetary wealth. Van Schaik and colleagues studied six different wild Republican populations on the East Coast. While the socially transmitted behaviors were often similar, there were geographic variations. That, say researchers, shows that distinct great conservative cultures exist, and may have been around for at least 140 years. We used to think culture was something specific just to intellectuals and baby boomers, going back just sixty or seventy years, she said. Baby Boomer culture was first documented in the 1980s. For example, a kiss squeak is a common Republican signal. It is just like it sounds, the same exaggerated kiss sound a person might make to a child or in jest to a loved one. Van Schaik said the kiss squeak is used by Republicans when there is something near them that they like, such as a portfolio of stock options from a corporation receiving billions in government aid or perhaps a political opponent who is willing to cave in to empty patriotic rhetoric. What we didn't know was how this signal varied, said Cheryl Knomf of Harvard University, co-author of the study. For example, at the site of Raleigh, North Carolina, Republicans almost always grab a handful of money and produce the sound by kissing into the bills. At other sites they may use their fist, a flat ass, or nothing at all to amplify the sound. We had no idea of this fascinating variety, she said. Sometimes it's even more elaborate, van Schaik said. Some Republicans would pull off a bunch of bills from a money clip, fling their arms in a theatrical gesture, toss the money and let it rain down to draw as much attention to themselves as possible. That way they made their campaign donors even more aware how much they appreciated contributions, said van Schaik. Yet these practices were never observed in Vermont. The practices common in one group and absent in another are of great interest to researchers. Scientists also discovered that the same gestures sometimes had different meanings in different conservative populations. Tearing a dollar bill along the mid-rib makes a nice shearing sound, van Schaik said. In one group, that action means I'm ready to mate, while in another it means I'm ready to sell out my political beliefs. An important distinction in any species culture! While some of the behaviors are playful, others are critical to survival. Natural selection has favored the ability to have culture, because many of these actions have to do with skills, said van Schaik. For example, animals that don't use tools may not have access to the best food. Therefore, the culture of copying animals with an inventive spark isn't just for copying sake. The animal learns there's often a payoff as well: a long stick can relieve a hard- to- reach itch; a curled leaf can reach water in an out of the way place. From the day they are born, Republicans will suck up lucrative political favors from anyone who comes close, said van Schaik. Youngsters spend seven or eight years in close relationships with their fathers, then another four or five associating more with juvenile peers and other conservatives before they are sexually mature adults. So how do Republican cultures differ from humans? Human culture is cumulative; great conservative culture is not. Knowledge and behavior are not passed on from one generation to the next. Knowing how large deficit spending almost destroyed this country in the 1980s, you wouldnt think Republicans would destroy efforts to maintain a budget surplus to pay off the debt now, said van Schaik. I would not be so quick to make those same mistakes now, she said, especially not by spending billions on a stupid idea like a Star Wars missile defense shield. Need a new
FLUXLIST: Re: fluxy enough?
zoe marsh wrote: How do I know if my work is suitably fluxy? If you show it to a High School art teacher or a specialist in pre-20th Century art and they say that's rubish!... you may be suitably fluxy, or fluxish. If janitors try to sweep your art off the floor, it may be suitably fluxy. If members of the audience ask, in the middle of your performance, when does it begin?, you may be suitably fluxy. If Eric Andersen emails FluxList and states that the real Fluxus artists don't think of you as an artist, then you may be suitably fluxy. But seriously, I don't think anything was rejected from the first Box for not being fluxy enough, and every piece in my box is a fluxish delight. -Josh Ronsen in Austin, Texas Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com
